I adore the Central
States Swim Clinic. I went last year for the first time and LOVED it so attending
this year was an easy decision.

Here are some great ideas from the session on nutrition!

Nutrition

Jackie Berning Ph.D.

Central States Clinic 2013

It doesn’t matter what the sport is, there are always
challenges with nutrition. Athletes are busy, they don't know what to buy or how to cook and so they often choose poorly. Take-home
message:**Athletes should eat smaller, frequent meals
throughout day vs. back-loading calories in one large meal at night.**

Berning summarized a GeorgiaState
study on the effects of skipping meals within 24 hours. The study looked at two
groups over 12 weeks and measured their energy balance. The control group
didn’t eat breakfast and then ate a huge meal at a training table like format
late at night, so they backloaded a ton of calories at the end of the day. The
second group ate small meals spread throughout the day. Both groups ended at
same energy balance level after 12 weeks, BUT the group who backloaded calories
had more fat than the other group even though they weighed the same amount.
This means the backloaded calorie group lost muscle weight. When calories
are low throughout the day the body thinks it is starving and therefore burns
lean muscle mass. Then if eat a huge meal late at night about 50% of those calories will be stored as fat.
It is better to eat well throughout the day and do it consistently even on
holidays. Most people
think you are burning fat when eating low # of calories. Incorrect!
Take the calories your body needs and break into smaller
meals. I am NOT telling you to add a snack but instead divide up your required
calories into smaller meals. Don’t add a snack/calories to create an additional
time to eat.

Highlights:

-Eating before exercise vs. exercising in a fasted state
has been proven to improve performance. You want fuel to be: high in carbs, low
in fiber/fat, moderate in protein, familiar to the athlete (nothing new).
Something needs to come in to break the fast during sleep, liquid is fine.

Example fuel:

1 hour or less
before meets/workouts:

Liquid form: water, sports drinks
Your brain needs blood glucose up (CHO)
½ banana and toast
Gels 15 minutes before event, if have earlier you will rise
and dropoff before needed
Avoid energy drinks (red bulls/monster) etc. You may as well
drink a bottle of pancake syrup.
- Orange juice is a little high in CHO %; have at breakfast
but not just before get in water. If you have too much sugar in your gut it
draws out water. Once exercise starts CHO helps delay the start of exercise
induced response.
- Instant breakfast is OK, liquid will digest quicker. CHO
digests first in your gut, especially in liquid form.

Sports drinkTurkey
sandwich, with lo-fat cheese, yogurt, fruit, granola,
Pasta w meat sauce, bread sticks, lofat milk
French toast, low fat milk, fruit
*a mini meal, but want stomach to empty before get in the
pool, based on timing and volume of food putting in. More food put in, the more
time it takes to digest.
*while waiting to get picked up have a sandwich/veg/fruit it
should resemble a meal vs. single food concepts.

Minor league baseball
example: normally eat one meal a day on the bus, have $20 food allowance
and normally order 2 pizzas when get to hotel, cram food in and then go into
sleep coma and sleep through the free breakfast provided at the hotel. This
leads to low glycogen and fatigue, best to have some fluids with CHO or foods
available, eat energy bars, sports drinks in between.

Foods for healing/
and reducing inflammation:

What you eat can help reduce your chance of getting
diabetes, cancer, heart disease and more. A poor diet plus increase in physical
demand leads to oxidative stress/tissue damage and impairs immune system. -More fruit/veggies with antioxidants can help prevent
damage: dark leafy greens, spinach, kale, celery, blueberries, raspberries,
strawberries, apples, pears. Blueberries/strawberries/raspberries have a plant
nutrient in them that is really powerful and decreases neuromuscular injury and
helps strengthen immune system so not sick as often. -*Buy frozen! Especially when fresh fruit is hard to
find or really expensive. You won’t lose nutrients in frozen.

Sleep:

Night owls have a difficult time dealing with the demands of
being a student athlete.
They are more likely to use stimulants to stay away and then
can’t sleep at night.
*The body repairs damage when it’s sleeping. Sleep allows
nutrients to come out of store and do their repair. You need 7-8 hours/sleep at
night for max repair. The biggest part of repair is neuromuscular (how nerves
communicate). Sleep needs to be regular and consistent. During deep REM sleep
nutrients do repair work.
*A nap is good for mental recovery, but not longer than an
hour or else it will interfere with your sleep at night.
*If sleep longer than 8 hours or less than 7 hours you are
more likely to gain weight.
Teens need 10+ hours of sleep, 6-8 year olds need 10-12
hours of sleep.

Stats:

AG Swimmers:-40% of AG swimmers think fries are a great source of
carbs because it started out as a potato. -40% chose oatmeal as a good source of protein (vs. chicken).-Only 45% can identify foods from within a food group.
-30% of teen athletes skip breakfast – THIS is a huge
problem. -25% skip lunch, forget it or have no time. -82% of athletes can’t identify the fuel that muscles
use to contract (CHO=Carbs). Most athletes think it’s protein their muscles
need. -Athletes need more CHO and fluid. Extra calories should
be in form of CHO.-Timing of meals is important and dependent on GI issues
and workout intensity. Athletes with heavy training need to eat more than three
meals a day.

RECOVERY NUTRITION (Sunday)

88% of athletes have heard about recovery nutrition but only
33% know about putting food in within the 1-hour window of recovery.
*If dehydrated fatigue will set in early.
*20-25 grams of protein (~3 oz of chicken/deck of cards
size) after each training session will maximize protein synthesis. Co-ingest
small amount of protein will CHO (replaces glycogen store) as soon as possible,
this accelerates protein synthesis.

150-pound athlete
example:

54 grams CHO: bagel, smoothies, recovery shake
20-25 g protein: 2 tbps peanut butter, 1 C greek yogurt
Fluids: 3 C fluid for each pound lost during exercise
Consume 20-25 gram protein enough to stimulate protein
synthesis, higher amounts do NOT bring an increase in protein synthesis – all
extra gets oxidized off and peed out. DO NOT use the huge protein shakes!
Instead consume protein 5-6x during the day to maximize protein synthesis.
**Chronic protein consumption in excess could actually turn off the pathways to
make new muscle/protein synthesis. -Need the 9 essential branched chain amino acids found
mostly in animal products or soy. They get absorbed fast but help turn on
pathway for protein synthesis. -Chocolate milk is good, has animal protein and good %.
Not all swimmers need recovery nutrition. For example, if
taking a day off your body will get back with regular eating. Do recovery
nutrition mostly in competition season/phase.

Example: HS soccer
team spending tons of time on the road at away games

Body needs and can handle 6-8% CHO (Gatorade is great).
Energy drinks like red bull or monster are like 22+% and often come with some
type of caffeine and/or ginseng. It’s not formulated for athletes or tested in
a lab. It elevates resting heart rate and is dangerous.